Pro-Manning Hecklers Interrupt Obama in Syracuse

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images (SYRACUSE, N.Y.) -- While making the pitch on his new college affordability plan for the second time, President Obama was interrupted by pro-Bradley Manning hecklers at Henninger High School in Syracuse, N.Y., Thursday evening. Two women holding a giant “Free Bradley Manning” sign yelled at the president in the middle of his speech.

It was unclear what the women were saying, but they were escorted out of the gymnasium to applause from the crowd. When the women started shouting, the president said “I hear you” and tried to calm down the crowd. After the two women left, Obama called the hecklers “polite” before continuing with his college affordability speech. “Can I just say that as hecklers go that young lady was very polite. She was! And she brought up an issue of importance and that’s part of what America is all about,” Obama said. “But what America is also all about is making sure that middle class families succeed."

After stops Thursday in Buffalo and Syracuse, the president will continue his bus tour on Friday with a townhall at Binghamton University and a speech at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., hometown of Vice President Joe Biden, who will join the president after spending the week in Houston with his son Beau Biden who underwent a medical procedure on Tuesday.